The Backyard War
by Trane7
Summary: Project Freelancer was always at war with the Insurrectionist but did anyone ever wonder about the shadowy war they had with ONI, who were the UNSCs powerhouse during the Covenant War? Surely they would not allow such an organisation to be able to rival them in ability. Of course they didn't. One-shot until proven otherwise


First-Lieutenant Derek Frazier quietly slinked into the hall of ONI's CASTLE headquarters on Reach. His pressed and clean Officers uniform was emblazoned with the UNSC's Eagle insignia, signifying his allegiance with humanities military arm, and his officers cap was tucked in between his armpits as his electric blue eyes kept watch for any movement in the shadows.

His fingers twitched by his side as his footsteps made a dull echo against the hard metal floor, the shiny black material reflecting the faint shine of the overhead luminescent lights that adorned the ceilings. Subconsciously he wondered if ONI just had a liking to the dark and gloomy types, evidence by many of his fellow co workers who continually enjoyed regaling others with their stories of questionable heroics and the ONI's motto of 'Don't be human'. Derek scowled internally, his own morals screaming at him but for now he pushed the sound to the back of his head and concentrated on his current objective. Pausing in front of a large metal door, red and black tape running across its entrance with the words 'Authorised Personnel Only' glaring at him in big blocky letters, Derek smirked at it in challenge before slipping a white card into the terminal by its side. Immediately a panel opened up by the doors side, revealing a set of red and blue wires, five red wires and three blue ones. Smirking to himself he pulled free two of the red wires and carefully wrapped them around the blue wires, then he cut the blue tangled blue wires and connected them to the two red wires before reaching his hand at the furthest back of the panel and carefully pulled a blue crystal off its slot.

The door by his side suddenly opened up with a quiet 'swoosh' and Derek grinned in mute satisfaction. Securing his Officers hat onto his head, he made sure that its peaked canopy would be able to cover his face from the cameras inside if his partner had failed to turn those off. Squaring his shoulders straight, Derek silently entered the room, eyeing the large terminal cases that held some of the most advanced computer technology that the UNC was capable of acquiring. Running his hand across one these cases Derek was careful to make sure he didn't apply to much pressure that his fingerprint might get imprinted onto the metal, his eyes tracking the two cameras that were situated at the ceiling corners to make sure that they were no longer active. Seeing that the cameras showed no signs of being ON, Derek reached his hand onto his back and pulled free a black UNSC Standard knife and pressed the tip of the blade against the screws of the terminals.

Twisting each screw loose, Derek fished out a tacpad from his pants pocket and watched as a timer was counting down from thirty minutes. "That's about enough time" He whispered, his deep Eastern-European accent thick in his speech. When the last screw was loose, the panel that Derek was trying to open dropped free and he was quick to catch it before it slammed against the floor, setting it down more gently to not alarm any nearby guards.

Dropping to his knee, Derek looked back to the room entrance one last time, making sure that not a soul was nearby, before carefully inserting a small chip into a slot inside the terminal. "5...4...3...2...1" After his countdown a blue light flashed in front of his face before it materialised into the image of a blue armor-clad SPARTAN-II in an 'At ease' stance.

"Hello there Agent Iowa, I am PFL-CTN-001 Designation Alpha. How may be of assistance today?" Derek, now Agent Iowa, smiled thinly at Alpha, the most recent addition to Project Freelancers small repertoire of Agents and Equipment.

"Alpha I have you inserted into ONI's sub-database on CASTLE base of Reach. Are you able to access any information on their Sub-level Directive Red-One?" Alpha seemed seemed visibly surprise as his avatar took a step back before he got a careful look at the room around them.

"I take it we're not here...with their permission, are we?" Alpha said slowly, his gold visor staring back at Iowa. The Freelancer Agent shivered slightly as he imagined a younger Director saying that in the small AI's stead.

"No, we are not. ONI does not know that we are currently within their Sub-Database systems" Derek replied as he looked back at his Tacpad. Biting his lower lip in agitation when he saw the numbers had dwindled to twenty.

"I'm not talking about ONI. I should have been delivered straight to the Mother of Invention in dry-dock right after leaving The Directors office. Agent Foxtrot-21, care explaining to me why my chauffeur decided to go all James Bond-Triple X on me?" Alpha said irately, his hands crossed over his chest as Iowa imagined he was giving him a 'I'm waiting' look.

Iowa had to sit back and marvel at the differences between The Director and the Alpha, though the little AI was modeled after The Directors younger years, his reactions and responses were far different from the present Director. "Look, Alpha. An opportunity rose up while me an Agent Idaho were getting you to the shipyards." Alpha dropped his hands by his sides and looked like he wanted to start off another lecture but Iowa stopped him before he could by saying, "And _my_ initial orders that hold more prevalence in this situation is acquiring and finding out just what our counterparts in ONI- Hence me being an undercover agent- are doing while the war is going on" The AI was silent for a moment and Iowa began to sweat as he saw some of the camera's begin to twitch at its corners.

"Alright, I got all the information I could within the timeframe before the camera's are activated to before the next patrol comes in. It's not ideal but it's not enough to warrant your little sidetrack with me so The Director doesn't chew you out. Oh, and you better call Agent Foxtrot-19 to not turn off all the power on the North wing block. Admiral Paragonsky is on that side and if she smells something amiss on that end she'll know to haul ass over here" Iowa sighed in relief before he sent a red light to Idaho to abandon his mission.

Pulling the AI chip from the slot, Iowa quietly thanked Alpha before slotting it into a silver canister and replacing it into his back pocket. Sealing the panel back and quickly exiting the room, Iowa none too gently ripping the white card free from its slot and hiding it inside his breast pocket and setting off in a brisk pace towards the North wing.

It wasn't long before he entered CASTLE bases cafeteria and he quickly spotted his partner, Agent Idaho, walking past a set of Marines in their soft uniforms waiting to get lunch. The Freelancer Agent smiled slightly, his rugged features and dirty blonde hair cropped short onto his head as his Officers cap was secured underneath his armpit.

"Hello Frazier" Derek frowned, wondering about the sudden stiffness before he spotted a certain figure over his partners shoulder. A graying woman stood off to the side with a small formation of ONI agents around her, her clear four silver stars visible from even the distance Derek stood at. "Paragonsky spotted me leaving the IT ward before I could slip into the crowd. I think she recognises me as a Freelancer" Idaho whispered as he passed Iowa.

Screwing a pleasant face on Iowa made sure that his expression remained as innocent as not out-of-the-ordinary as possible as he waved Idaho behind and stalked off towards the cafeteria exit where a civilian warthog would be waiting to pick him up. He also quietly said a prayer to his partner Idaho, for he knew, he would never see him again.

That was the problem with Project Freelancer. While the top Agents like Carolina, Wyoming and Maine did all the tough and loud missions that dealt with the insurrection and the Covenant. Agents like Iowa were reduced into the Backyard War that they were having with ONI, a war where one wrong move, from being seen in the wrong place to having the wrong expression, could mean certain death in the most excruciating way possible.

Looking over his shoulder, Iowa noticed how Paragonsky was eyeing him from her place next to the Cafeteria counter. In silence Iowa left CASTLE base on the warthog, not daring to part a word with the driver or batting an eye as he handed Alpha to Agent York aboard the Mother of Invention. The only thing time he made a sound was when a pair of ONI Section II Officers passing by his work station, talking about a certain Fox that had been caught and dumped at the west side of Reach. Quietly Iowa whimpered because he knew, his turn would come very soon.


End file.
